tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Mon May 23 22:51:38 1994

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typical constructs



>From: Katrin Erk <[email protected]>
>Date: Tue, 24 May 94 15:19:45 +0200


>Hi,

Hi!

>I'm a student of computer science and computational linguistics from
>Koblenz, Germany. I'm interested in artificial languages on the whole
>(have you ever tried creating on eof you own?).

Consider subscribing to the constructed languages mailing list also,
although it's been quiet lately.  Send a mail message saying "subscribe" to
[email protected], I think.

>I am taking a course in the Klingon language at our university this
>semester and will soon have to talk about the semantics of the Klingon
>language. I've found out some interesting things, but there is one
>point missing: I'd like to know what are typical language constucts in
>Klingon.

>I've read the book by Marc Okrand: He describes the basic sentencs
>structure, but I'd like to know what you do if you want to express
>complex thoughts in Klingon.
>When you learn to talk and think in a language, you learn to
>instinctively express your thoughts in a way typical of the language,
>which is different from the way you'd say the same thing in another
>language. I'm really not that experienced in talking Klingon, so I'd
>appreciate your help.

Well, I've held some real-time conversations in Klingon, so I think I know
what you mean.  Klingon's structure is more restrictive than most languages
I've used, and sometimes it's hard to get the method of construction that
you need to come to you instinctively.  Still, it happens.  I haven't had
much trouble with the word-order in a long time (though everyone still
makes mistakes...), so in a sense I've learned to think object-first more
instinctively (my native language is English, which of course is
subject-first).  I still often have to thinka sentence through a second or
two to work out how to recast it in the syntax and semantics of Klingon
(though things like "qaleghmo' jIQuch" for "I am happy to see you" are
coming easier).  I find it easier to think in terms of purpose clauses
("-meH") and causals ("-mo'"), and to change the way I think of tenses to
Klingon's aspect-marking as time goes on.

Er, it's hard to talk about this kind of thing in general; what kinds of
answers are you looking for?

>Thanx,
>   Katrin


~mark



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